"Highlights" from The Plumb Line

Written by Mark Plumb

(originally published HERE)

“Highlights”

Good news:

    An overture to celebrate “Evolution Sunday” was defeated

        47-2 in committee.

    The mid-east committee recommended rejection of making a
        distinction between modern and ancient Israel.

    Committee votes to disassociate from the inflammatory 

        publication “Zionism Unsettled”, which has been         

        criticized as being racist and anti-Israel.

Bad news:

    A committee has opened the door for PCUSA pastors to 

        perform same-sex marriages.

    The same committee also approved an overture that would change the

        description of a Christian marriage in the Constitution from being 

        “between “one man and one woman” to between “two persons”. 

    (The good news for us is that language was included in the overture that 

        states that “nothing herein shall compel a teaching elder to perform nor 

        compel  a session to authorize the use of church property for a 

        marriage service that the teaching elder or session believes is 

        contrary to the teaching elder’s or the session’s discernment of the 

        Holy Spirit and their understanding of the Word of God.”)

    The middle east committee voted to divest of investments in Hewlit-

        Packard, Motorola and Caterpillar.

    The Church Polity and Ordered Ministry committee is also recommending 

        that the assembly reject efforts to clarify what is meant in the 

        denomination’s Book of Order by “Essential tenets of the Reformed 

        faith.”

These issues will now go before the entire General Assembly for a confirmation vote. Please continue to pray that the bad news will turn into good news during the plenary sessions.